The present invention relates to the field of modular jacks for use in the telecommunications industry. More specifically, this invention relates to a switching jack which allows selection of normal-through signal flow or pass-through signal flow for use in telecommunications network applications.
When building or extending a Local Area Network (LAN) or other similar telecommunications environment, some ability to connect sets of cables is required. Often, this need arises when a backbone or horizontal cable is connected to a LAN segment. In this situation, the workstations of the LAN segment are cabled and the cables from these workstations are gathered together in a wiring enclosure. The backbone cable is also led into the same enclosure. The individual cables from the workstations are split into twisted pairs and the pairs of wires are connected with a set of insulation displacement connectors (IDCs) or other connectors. These connectors are electrically connected to a set of modular jacks according to industry wiring standards. The backbone is also broken into appropriate twisted wire pairs and connecting to a separate set of IDCs or other connectors. These second connectors are then linked to another set of modular jacks according to industry wiring standards. Links between the backbone cable and the workstation cables are made by connecting a backbone modular jack to a workstation modular jack with a cross-connect patch cable.
This sort of LAN wiring arrangement can lead to confusion and management difficulties since every single network link in that particular wiring enclosure requires a cross-connect patch cable. Labeling and managing these cables can quickly become quite difficult with large or even moderately sized networks.
To address these shortcomings, a different type of modular jack arrangement was created, called a normal through jack assembly. Normal through jack assemblies might include a pair of modular jacks, one of the modular jacks electrically linked to a first connector for connecting to a backbone cable, the other modular jack electrically linked to a second connector for connecting to a workstation cable, and circuitry connecting the two jacks. The circuitry connecting the jacks would provide electrical connectivity between the two sets of connectors linked to the jacks such that when no plug has been inserted in either jack, a direct connection between the connectors is maintained. This is referred to as the normal through condition. Changes to this normal condition may be required when a network user temporarily moves to a new workstation or when there is a problem with a port in a hub or router either downstream or upstream of the normal through jack assembly. When a plug is inserted into either jack, the normal through condition is broken and the connectors linked to that jack are electrically linked to the plug""s conductors. Then the jack assembly can be used as a traditional cross-connect operation. This arrangement has the effect of reducing the number of cross-connect cables required to maintain the operational status of the network.
Current normal through jacks use a variety of means to accomplish these normal and cross-connect functions. Prior art normal through jacks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,074,801, 5,161,988, and 5,178,554. Issues regarding these jacks and other jacks have arisen with respect to durability, complexity of design and construction, and the ability to avoid signal degradation due to cross-talk at higher levels of data transmission speed.
One preferred embodiment of the present invention is a jack apparatus and method for connecting and switching network cables. The jack includes at least one jack module with two sets of connectors for linking wires from cables to the module and at least one jack. The modules within the jack slide between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the two sets of connectors linked to cables are electrically connected to each other, allowing normal through signal transmission. In the second position, the electrical connection between the connector sets is broken and the contacts within each jack are linked to one of the sets of connectors, allowing pass-through connections, such as a cross-connection, to be made through plugs received by the jacks.